Not batting full quota of overs a 'shame': Ganguly

After another disappointing performance, Indian captain Sourav Ganguly came down heavily on his batsmen and said it was a 'shame' that his team was bowled out inside the quota of 50 overs.

"The saddest part is that we did not play five overs in the end. That's a shame," Ganguly said after India suffered a 46-run defeat to South Africa in the triangular one-day series match on Friday night.

"With 40-odd runs needed from five overs and you have no wickets in hand... that's really a disgrace," he said.

"This has happened for three matches running. First at Centurion (against South Africa) where we had three overs left, then at Port Elizabeth (against Kenya) where we were all out in the 41st over and then now here where as many as five overs were still to be bowled."

India were bowled out for 236 in 44.4 overs in reply to South Africa's total of 282 for four and Rahul Dravid remained unbeaten on 71.

"What can Dravid do when he doesn't have batsmen to stay with him?" Ganguly, who played a sterling knock of 85 from 95 balls with six fours and four sixes to earn the man of the match award, said.

The Indian captain, who was caught by Jacques Kallis at the long-on boundary off Nicky Boje while trying for a big six, felt he should have stayed stayed a bit longer. "I think I should have batted through instead of taking Boje head on," he said.

Ganguly dismissed suggestions that his shot against Boje was an act in desperation as Dravid was finding it hard to score runs initially.

"I was never in pressure because Dravid was not getting his runs at the other end. When a wicket falls and against a bowling of this calibre you would expect a new batsman to (take time to) settle down."

He was also unperturbed by the South African ploy to bowl short pitched deliveries at him. "I don't see anything wrong in their approach. If you are a fast bowler and you don't use your speed then there must be something wrong in your approach."

But he did express his displeasure with the three run-outs in the Indian innings. "Okay, Shiv Sunder Das was unlucky... but the other two run-outs (Ajit Agarkar and Deep Dasgupta) were inexplicable as they were easy singles in them."

Coach John Wright said run-outs were becoming a headache for the Indian side. "It is a simple matter of calling loudly and judging the run perfectly -- unfortunately we don't seem to be getting over the problem."

Despite the failure of the young batting guns, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag, Wright said the two batsmen were very talented but lacked experiece.

"They are good at tonking the ball in the final 10 overs... They are inexperienced and probably are yet to learn how to pace their innings when there are more overs remaining," he said.

South African captain Shaun Pollock said he never felt any pressure because of the early assault by the Sachin Tendulkar and Ganguly who put on 101 runs for the first wicket in just 15.1 overs. "I was not under pressure because we were not bowling bad and they were hitting the length balls."

Pollock also said after the average performance in the field in the previous games it was good to see his side effect three run-outs. "It shows we are improving and that's good news." He felt on a wicket as easy paced as the one was at Buffalo Park, his side probably needed to score more than 282 runs. "But I have really no complaints, we scored enough to win on the day."

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